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// Workers AI · dad joke modeWho's Gérard Blain? A French actor with a lot of pain.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Gerard Blain)

Gérard Blain
Blain in Silver Spoon Set (1960)
Born(1930-10-23)23 October 1930
Paris, France
Died17 December 2000(2000-12-17) (aged 70)
Paris, France
OccupationsActor, film director
Years active1944–2000
Spouses

Gérard Blain (23 October 1930 – 17 December 2000) was a French actor and film director. He is perhaps best known for his roles in Claude Chabrol's Le Beau Serge and Les Cousins (both 1959), Howard Hawks' Hatari! (1962) and Wim Wenders' The American Friend. (1977)[1][2]

Biography

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Blain had a difficult childhood and adolescence after his father abandoned his family. He left school at aged 13 and became a street urchin. He had his first sexual experiences with older men and women while still a young teenager, a period later echoed in his semi-autobiographical film A Child in the Crowd (Un enfant dans la foule, 1976).[3] Wishing to become an actor, Blain starting working as a film extra in 1943.[4]

Blain had his breakthrough role in the crime drama Deadlier Than the Male (Voici le temps des assassins, 1956), opposite Jean Gabin: French media hailed him at the time as "the French James Dean". He starred in François Truffaut's short film Les Mistons (1957), Claude Chabrol's first two feature films Le Beau Serge (1958) and Les Cousins (1959), and appeared in Jean-Luc Godard's short film Charlotte and Her Boyfriend (1960). This led him to be associated to the French New Wave,[2] though he later disparaged the movement.[5] The French-Italian co-production system of the time also led him to star in Italian films, including Mauro Bolognini's Young Husbands (1958) and Carlo Lizzani's The Hunchback of Rome (1960) and Gold of Rome (1961).[2] In 1962, he essayed a Hollywood career with a supporting role in Howard Hawks' Hatari! opposite John Wayne, but found himself ill-suited to American filmmaking. Later on, unhappy with his acting career, he became a film director, making nine films between 1971 and 2000.[6][7]

His first film as a director, The Friends, won the Golden Leopard at the 1971 Locarno International Film Festival.[8] Blain's directing choices were ascetic and rigorous and closely emulated Robert Bresson's style: he mostly employed non-professional actors, one major exception being his film Second Wind (1978) which starred Robert Stack. An outspoken critic of mainstream filmmaking and reportedly a difficult man to work with, Blain had an outsider status within the French film industry; although they were well-received by critics, his films as a director had little commercial success. While focusing on his directing work he kept appearing occasionally as an actor, notably in Wim Wenders' The American Friend (1977).[2][4] In 1987, Blain's career was affected when his film Pierre and Djemila, an ostensibly anti-racist tragic love story, was accused of being racist due to co-writer Michel Marmin being a member of the French New Right.[2][9][10]

Blain married three times, including briefly to Bernadette Lafont.[7] One of his sons, Paul Blain, also had an acting career.

Filmography

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Actor

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Year Title Role Director Notes
1944 Le bal des passants Guillaume Radot
Le carrefour des enfants perdus Léo Joannon
1945 Les enfants du paradis Marcel Carné Uncredited
1946 Fils de France Pierre Blondy
1954 Wild Fruit Hervé Bromberger
Before the Deluge High school boy André Cayatte Uncredited
Service Entrance The photographer Carlo Rim Uncredited
1956 Voici le temps des assassins Gérard Delacroix Julien Duvivier
Crime and Punishment Jean Fargeot Georges Lampin
1957 Le désir mène les hommes Olivier Jourdans Émile Roussel
Les Mistons Gérard François Truffaut Short
1958 Young Husbands Marcello Mauro Bolognini
Le Beau Serge Serge Claude Chabrol
1959 Les Cousins Charles Claude Chabrol
Match contre la mort Jacques Lourmel Claude Bernard-Aubert
1960 Silver Spoon Set Anselmo Foresi Francesco Maselli
Run with the Devil Stefano Solera Mario Camerini
Charlotte and Her Boyfriend Charlotte's new boyfriend Jean-Luc Godard Short
The Hunchback of Rome Alvara aka "Hunchback" Carlo Lizzani
1961 La peau et les os Mazur Jean-Paul Sassy
Gold of Rome Davide Carlo Lizzani
1962 Hatari! Charles "Chips" Maurey Howard Hawks
Lo sgarro Paolo Silvio Siano
1963 The Eye of the Needle Toto Cacace Marcello Andrei
Les Vierges Xavier de Brétevielle Jean-Pierre Mocky
La soupe aux poulets Claudio Philippe Agostini
1964 La Bonne Soupe The painter Robert Thomas
Via Veneto Giuseppe Lipartiti
Amori pericolosi Soldier Giulio Questi (segment "Il generale")
1965 Un amore Marcello Gianni Vernuccio
1966 M.M.M. 83 Robert Gibson Sergio Bergonzelli
1967 La Musica Marguerite Duras and Paul Seban
Shock Troops Thomas Constantin Costa-Gavras
1968 Negresco Roger Klaus Lemke
1969 Joë Caligula - Du suif chez les dabes [fr] Joë Caligula José Bénazéraf
1970 Caïn de nulle part Caïn Daniel Daërt
1971 Paolo e Francesca Giovanni Malatrasi Gianni Vernuccio
1974 The Pelican Paul Boyer Himself
1976 A Child in the Crowd Man in the street Himself Uncredited cameo
1977 The American Friend Raoul Minot Wim Wenders
The Machine Journalist Paul Vecchiali
1978 Utopia Gérard Iradj Azimi
1981 La Flambeuse Henri Rachel Weinberg
1983 Un dimanche de flic [fr] Emilio Michel Vianey
La derelitta Redza Jean-Pierre Igoux
1986 La Presqu'île Simon Georges Luneau
1987 Killing Time Broz Edouard Niermans
1988 Natalia Claude Roitman Bernard Cohn
1989 Jour après jour Richard Lunet Alain Attal
L'enfant de l'hiver Stephane's father Olivier Assayas
1992 Chasse gardée Pierre Bufières Jean-Claude Biette
1995 Jusqu'au bout de la nuit François Himself
1999 Cinématon Himself Gérard Courant
2001 Bandits d'amour The priest Pierre Le Bret

Director

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Year Title Notes
1971 The Friends Also writer
1974 The Pelican Also writer and lead actor
1976 A Child in the Crowd Also writer
1978 Second Wind Also writer
1980 The Rebel Also writer
1987 Pierre and Djemila Also writer
1993 La Fortune de Gaspard TV movie; also writer
1995 Jusqu'au bout de la nuit Also writer and lead actor
2000 Ainsi soit-il [fr] Also writer

References

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  1. ↑ "Gérad Blain". unifrance.org. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Bergan, Ronald (19 December 2000). "Gérard Blain". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
  3. ↑ Didier Roth-Bettoni, L'Homosexualité au cinéma, La Musardine, Paris, 2007, p. 234
  4. 1 2 Rauger, Jean-François (18 December 2000). "Gérard Blain, rebelle intransigeant du cinéma français" (in French). Le Monde. Retrieved 15 July 2026.
  5. ↑ Catroux, Sébastien (18 December 2000). "La mort de Gérard Blain" (in French). Parisien. Retrieved 15 July 2026.
  6. ↑ "Gérard Blain". newwvefilm.com. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
  7. 1 2 "Gérard Blain". telegraph.co.uk. 29 December 2000. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
  8. ↑ "Winners of the Golden Leopard". Locarno. Archived from the original on 19 July 2009. Retrieved 19 August 2012.
  9. ↑ Staff (13 May 1987). ""Pierre et Djemila", de Gérard Blain Les enfants qui voulaient s'aimer". Le Monde (in French). Retrieved 20 July 2026.
  10. ↑ Gastaut, Yvan (2001). "Cinéma de l'exclusion, cinéma de l'intégration. Les représentations de l'immigré dans les films français (1970-1990)". Hommes & Migrations (in French). Retrieved 20 July 2026.
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